


We shall know more than we know now

by Lemurafraidofthunder



Category: James Bond (Craig movies)
Genre: Christmas, First Kiss, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-25
Updated: 2015-12-25
Packaged: 2018-05-08 18:32:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5508362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lemurafraidofthunder/pseuds/Lemurafraidofthunder
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When James Bond and Q find themselves stuck in Copenhagen, Bond gets an idea about what to do. Which includes amusements and more christmas lights than imaginable.</p>
            </blockquote>





	We shall know more than we know now

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, I'm gonna be honest: This is a blatant love letter to one of my favourite places and 00Q is basically just an excuse for writing about it.
> 
> That said this was really fun writing and you can bet your butt that every place mentioned (and some of the things I decided to cut) are real places and it's even more magical than what my words could describe. 
> 
> Special thanks to [besanii](http://besanii.tumblr.com/) for helping me hash out the fic and practically just listening to me gush about Tivoli...
> 
> Title from the beginning of The Snow Queen.

“It’s boring here,” Bond complains and even though it’s the first time he says it, Q knows he has probably been thinking it for a long time. It doesn’t take much more than eyes in the head to notice how Bond has been pacing the hotel room floor for the last hour. Before that he had gone from sitting on the bed and joining Q in the other chair like a ping pong ball. “Why do we have to be trapped here?”

“Well, with the amount of havoc you caused at the airport even MI6 has to take some time to sweet talk the Danes to let you through there again,” Q comments without looking up from his laptop at Bond. He’s perfectly content with spending the time doing some of the paper work he has to do anyway.

“But there’s no reason for you to stay here as well,” Bond says, “you could have just gone back when you had delivered the device. Hell, you could go right now. It’s not you they’re not letting through.”

It’s true, Q could just pick up his bag and hail a cab to the airport, but he hasn’t done so. “I thought I might as well keep you company here,” he says, keeping his voice perfectly level. “Paperwork can be done everywhere and this way I don’t have someone knocking on my door every twenty minutes to ask about some simple task. See, it’s a win-win.”

Bond scoffs. “I’m not winning much right now.” Then he stops in his tracks. Q looks up to see Bond staring out the window at something. A tiny smile forms at the corners of Bond’s mouth When Q turns in his seat to see, he doesn’t see anything in particular. The rooftops of the city, but nothing to justify Bond’s reaction. Then, before he can ask just what is so interesting out there, Bond turns to Q. “You do have a winter coat with you, Q, haven’t you?”

“Yes of course,” Q replies but not without a quizzical tone. Bond seemingly doesn’t notice or just doesn’t care.

“Good, you’re going to need it,” he just says and goes to the wardrobe and pulls out a coat of his own. Q stops typing but he keeps his laptop open still.

“Are we going somewhere?” Q asks. “Because I’m sure there is some kind of work you could keep yourself occupied with. The report on why you felt the need to cause a complete shutdown of CPH airport for example.”

“But where’s the fun in that?” Bond is pulling on boots that are warmer but probably not less expensive than the usual shoes. He apparently means it seriously, Q thinks and he shoots the paperwork a glance. It’s not like it’s his favourite pasttime in the world. “Come on, Quartermaster, there’s something you need to see.” It’s all it takes and Q closes the laptop and deposits it in his bag. He dons his own coat and shoes and joins Bond at the door.

“Care to let me in on just what it is I need to see?” he asks as Bond leads them to the lift.

“Hm, I’d rather it be surprise,” Bond says pressing the button. “Let’s just say it’s something special this city has. I think you’ll like it, it’s quite cozy.”

Q wants to ask why Bond thinks that, if he thinks enough about Q to figure out his tastes, but he keeps quiet. He supposes he can let it be a surprise.

 

They make their way through the city as the sky begins to darken even though the afternoon is barely tipping over into evening and Q takes in the city’s charm. Sure it’s cozy and pretty with the shopfronts and christmas decorations but so is London and Bond made it sound special. Bond doesn’t stop walking so they must not have reached their destination yet. Curiosity has taken over a bit, Q has to admit because the longer they walk the more he starts wondering just what it’s going to be. Maybe it’s some kind of museum, after all they did meet in a museum, so Bond must know that Q likes those. Museums aren’t that special though.

Q’s still pondering the possibilities when they make a turn and what he sees– it’s simply…

“Oh, it’s _breathtaking_ ,” he whispers, grabbing Bond by the arm. The sky has darkened to the deep blue of dusk and so the golden-lit arch before them stand out in a magical way. There are lights lining every nook and cranny of the building and christmas trees decorating the roofs. People are milling around and the cars are whizzing past, but Q couldn’t care less. He turns to Bond. “What _is_ this?”

“Tivoli,” Bond says, looking amused at Q’s wonder. He glances down at the hand gripping his arm. Q lets go but he’s too curious to be embarrassed. “It’s an old amusement park.”

“It can’t possibly be,” Q protests, “it’s too–“

“Too classy?” Bond offers just as the light turns green at the pedestrian crossing Q didn’t even know they were at. He follows Bond across the street toward the big arch that must be the entrance.

“Too pretty.” Because it’s pretty with all the lights and Q can see now that the inside of the park has even more lights in all kinds of colours. He barely notices that Bond has nudged them over to the queue at the entrance until they’re at the ticket booth and Bond is paying for two tickets.

“You don’t have to–” Q protests but Bond has already finished paying. He turns to Q, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. Looking at that smile, Q can’t help but feel like there’s something he’s not getting. Yet.

“Well, what are you waiting for?” Bond asks, shaking Q from his thoughts, and gestures to the park. Q looks at Bond for a second longer before following him. They walk down the path that’s lined with lights and for a while Q just takes it all in. There’schristmas music and people around him talking a language he doesn’t understand, interspersed with screams and laughs from the amusements. The bustling atmosphere feels calming and he’s content with just wandering past all kinds of shops and buildings with christmas themes without doing anything in particular.

That is, until they pass a stand with the most ridiculous fur hats.

“You know, you would look like you had a bear on your head if you wore that kind of thing,” he comments as he stops at the stand. The hats pretty much look like dead animals on sticks.

Then he spots another stand with woolly beanies that are considerably more to his taste. He walks over and picks up one thats in a dark grey thick yarn and it’s even softer than it looks.

“It would suit you,” Bond comments beside him and even though he’s still smiling it’s a different smile from the one over the silly hats.

“I pretty much have to have it,” Q admits and sighs because he does have a beanie at home, it’s just not as nice and soft as this one. Before he can really make his mind up though, Bond picks the hat right out of his hands and strides off. Q sees him find the owner of the shop and talk to him. Money is passed over and Bond comes back.

“You did it again!” Q says when he’s in earshot.

“Did what?”

“You paid for me,” Q accuses, “you did at the ticket booth and now with this one.” He gesticulates at the hat but he can already feel the futility of the protest. Bond just shrugs and smiles at him.

“I wanted to,” he says and it comes out sincere and almost bashful. That’s a sight to behold, Q thinks, a bashful double-oh.

“Of course you just do what you want to,” Q says, giving up on being offended. He sighs. “Thank you, 007.”

Q expects Bond to hand him the hat but instead he steps close and puts it on Q himself. He tucks it all the way down to cover Q’s ears with a gentle firmness, gloved fingers brushing Q’s hair and skin. For a moment all Q can see is the bright blue of Bond’s eyes and the way his lips curl into a smile. Their breaths in the air between them like white clouds. Then the moment's passed and Bond lets his hands drop and steps back.

Q’s hands seek up on the own account to feel the wool when Bonds turns and his cheeks feel warm despite the weather. This is getting increasingly confusing.

 

It starts snowing after a while of them strolling through the park. Big white flakes fall silently from the sky, landing in their hair and on their shoulders.

“It’s quite pretty,” Q comments turning his face upwards to look at the swirling whiteness.

“Just wait until it starts melting on you,” Bond says smiling. He leans close, almost impossibly close. Then Q spots a particularly big flake falling into the collar of Bond’s jacket. His hand shoots out on its own account to brush it off and before he knows it he feels the warmth of Bond’s neck. It’s almost like he’s burned and he retracts his hand quickly. Bond’s quicker though, and grabs his hand in the air. He pulls off his gloves.

“You’re positively icy,” Bond says with concern.

“I forgot to bring my gloves,” Q says sheepishly. He considers pulling his hand away but then again, Bond’s hand is so warm. Bond is the one to let go of Q’s hand but not for the reason Q expected. He reaches for Q’s other hand and then he tucks his glove on it. It doesn’t quite fit, Bond’s hands are much broader than Q’s but the lining and the leather and the residual warmth more than makes up for it.

“I guess we can share,” Bond says and Q is just about to point out that now they’ll just both have a cold hand so overall it’s not really better. But then Bond takes Q’s ungloved hand and pulls it into his jacket pocket. Q stares at where their joined hands disappear from view. He can feel Bond’s hand, dry and warm against his own and the calloused skin that undeniably comes with the job.

It takes quite some time for Q to get used to it and stop being so tense, but as they’re strolling and his hands start warming up, Q feels himself relax.

 

The snow keeps on coming and it might have been nice and kind of novel at first but now it’s leaning more towards uncomfortable and wet.

“Maybe we should try and find shelter,” Q suggests when Bond wipes snow off his head for the third time.

“That doesn’t sound half bad,” Bond admits and looks around them. Both their hands are still firmly situated in his pocket. Q glances down, still a little bemused over it all, before he looks up again for shelter.

“That ride over there looks to be under a roof,” he says, spotting a colourful building with dolls and a big trunk on the front.

“Do you have any idea what it does?”

“No, but there’s one way to find out,” Q says, smiling. He starts walking over and pulls Bond with him. He comes without resistance but there’s a hesitant look on his face. “You’re not telling me that a double-oh like you is scared to try a little ride.”

“Not scared, merely wondering if it’s worth it. It looks kind of tame,” Bond quips back

“Who cares, it looks free of snow and warm,” Q says and with that he goes over to the nearest ticket stand. This time he does the paying before Bond can even think of it. Sadly though, that means Q has to extricate his hand from Bond’s pocket but he does so quickly. Bond’s fingers aren’t gripping tightly so it’s no problem but the moment Q’s hand is out in the air he remembers how cold it is. The change in temperature is stark and he realises that he had forgotten all about wearing one of Bond’s gloves. He slips out of it, carefully keeping it so it won’t be filled with the snow hurdling down from the skies.

He gets the tickets and they join the non-existent queue. As they’re making their way down the staircase that leads to the ride, Q takes the glove and stuffs it in Bond’s pocket. Bond looks up at him, an amused question in his eyes, but Q just shrugs.

“I don’t need it right now,” Q says smiling back. He can give just as good as he gets. “Thanks for letting me borrow it.”

Bond just grunts a little and gosh it shouldn’t be so endearing as it is, Q thinks as he sighs inwardly. He still hasn’t figured out what this _thing_ really is but it feels more and more like a _thing_.

The staircase ends at a turning platform with cars shaped like old suitcases driving slowly by.

“This gets weirder and weirder,” Bond comments under his breath as Q hands over the tickets and they are let in.

“It looks cozy,” Q says. Feeling confident, he hooks his arm around Bond’s and pulls him forward and into the car. The seat is just a bench with a metal bar for safety. It’s not going to be a wild ride then. “You’re gonna live, I think.”

The car goes slowly, climbing uphill, and a voice sounds from a speaker in the roof of the car.

“Can you understand any of it?” Q asks turning to Bond and when he shakes his head, Q takes a look around. There’s a switch right next to the speaker with the Danish and the Union flag and Q tries flicking it. Nothing happens. The words coming out are still garbled nonsense.

“It seems the language switch is broken,” Q says. In front of them a scene unfolds with dolls mechanically moving. The voice probably says something that would be very enlightening if you could understand it.

“We’re really getting the full experience then, huh.” Bond’s tone is dry but he doesn’t seem too bothered with it. Q isn’t really either, it’s not snowing in here and it’s warm and all in all he’s pretty comfortable. The same moment that thought passes his mind, the car jerks and turns and suddenly he’s sliding right down into Bond. He’s just about to apologise, quite flustered, when Bond just throws his arm around Q’s shoulders to keep him there. Neither of them say anything.

 

He gets it when they pass a scene that’s supposed to be underwater with mermaids everywhere. And when he does, he feels a little foolish.

“It’s fairytales!” he exclaims, everything from the many mattresses to the the birds suddenly making sense.

“Fairytales? Like the Grimm brothers?” Bond asks as they leave the mermaids behind.

“No H.C. Andersen,” Q says and he looks at the next scene. It’s one with a christmas tree seen through a window and a small girl with a lit match in her hand. The little match girl. “I’m pretty sure they’re all fairytales by him. It would make sense since he’s Danish.”

The rest of the ride passes with Q trying to recognise the fairytales the scenes describe and trying not to think too much about how nice it feels to be tugged into Bond’s side.

 

“So, do you have a favourite one?” Bond asks when they get outside. Q looks at him with a quizzical eyebrow. “You seem like too big of a fan to not have a favourite.”

“The Snow Queen, I think,” Q says as they start walking. The snow has stopped falling and there’s only a layer just thick enough to make everything look idyllic and white. “It seems fitting right now.”

“Can’t say I know that one,” Bond says, humming softly and Q takes it as a cue to explain further.

“It’s about a boy and girl, Kay and Gerda, who are best friends but then something happens. Actually the story starts out with how the devil once created a mirror that made everything wonderful in the world look grim and ugly and it was shattered into millions of pieces. One tiny speck falls into Kay’s eye, making him see only errors and mistakes, and one into his heart, freezing it cold and solid. He turns cold and uninterested in anything except criticising everything he sees.

“Kay goes sledding in the town centre and he hooks his sled onto a sleigh with a woman in it who turns out to be the snow queen. She takes him out of town and all the way up north to her castle to assemble the broken floor of ice her throne sits on.

“And then Gerda decides to go looking for Kay. She goes on a long journey where she meets all kinds of people and animals.” Q goes on to tell Bond about the garden with the the flowers and the witch, the prince and princess, the robber girl, the two ladies in the north. “And everyone from the prince and princess to the crow and reindeer simply adores her and want to help her find her friend.”

They have been walking all the while Q talked, Bond leading the way with a gentle hand at the small of Q’s back, and Q barely even notices his surroundings until…

“There’s a lake?” Hiding in the middle of the park that already seem like a miracle in a city is a dark lake, complete with willows covered in golden lights. Coloured lights circle the lake in decorative arches. It’s just as pretty as the rest fo the park and then a little more. It’s… romantic.

“Yes, there is a lake,” Bond replies, and Q catches the amused tone in his voice.

“You knew, and you didn’t show me immediately?” He doesn’t stop before they’re all the way over at the fence around the lake. In one end of the lake a bridge is lit up and filled with people and in the other end lies what looks like a real pirate ship. So maybe Q’s a little in love with this place.

“I thought I’d save the best for last,” Bond says leaning against the railing next to Q. “I think you were telling me a story? I’m dying to know the ending,”

“You know, for someone who dies on a monthly basis, you sure take that phrasing lightly,” Q says and steps in front of Bond. There’s not much space between them now. “She finds him at the snow queen’s castle assembling the mirror on the floor. He doesn’t acknowledge her even though she flings herself at him. She cries and her tears fall onto his chest. They seep into his heart and melt the ice and the mirror splinter. Kay then cries and out with his tears falls the splinter in his eye.”

Their breaths come out in white clouds, mingling in the air before dissipating.

“She kisses his cheeks and they grow quite blooming,” Q says and in a fit of bravery touches the tips of his fingers to Bond’s cheek. Bond doesn’t break eye contact. “She kisses his eyes and they shine like hers.” His fingers travel up to Bond’s eyes that fall shut just before he touches, featherlight. “And she kissed his hands and feet and he is healthy.” He reaches down and takes Bond’s hands, which are still ungloved, and only stops halfway from actually bringing them to his lips. Bond’s eyes are open again when he looks up and Q can’t look away.

“And then?”

“Well, then they go back together with the help of all the people and animals who helped Gerda before. When they return home, they realise they aren’t really children any more.”

“A happy ending,” Bond says. He’s smiling just the tiniest bit and it would be easy to miss if it weren’t for the fact that Q is standing so close now.

“Yes, I suppose so,” Q replies and it’s barely more than a murmur. His eyes flick down at their still joined hands before returning to Bond’s face. It should be strange or awkward but it isn’t. This whole evening has been wonderful and very date-y. In fact, he’s not really doubting that part anymore, not with the way Bond is looking at him right now and the way they’re standing so close. So Q makes a decision. He leans closer still, until there really is no more space between them and he can feel Bond’s lips against his, warm and soft. Bond lets go of his hands, but only to wrap his arms around Q and pull him closer.

Just as Q leans back, kind of out of breath and a bit wobbly in the knees there’s a flash of blue light and a loud sound. He can feel Bond tense up for a second, surprised and in alert mode immediately before he realises what’s happening. On the lake, as he looks past Bond’s shoulder, water fountains start spouting water lit in blue tones and the sound of some classical music is playing.

“It’s some kind of show,” he whispers and then he breaks down laughing. Because he just kissed James Bond and the world literally burst into lights and music.

Bond chuckles as well and relaxes his arm around Q’s waist. Then he turns around and tugs Q close to his side so they’re both facing the lake. The lights and water spectacle out there is very pretty.

**Author's Note:**

> [Come say hi on tumblr!](http://lemurafraidofthunder.tumblr.com/)


End file.
